


Crossroads Converging

by ivehadanapophany



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, Gerry lived in this au because he makes everything better, M/M, Multi, OT3, at some point gerry beats up a cop so thats fun, but he didn't either :), full avatar of the beholding Gerry send tweet, gertrude didn't go to his funeral :(, two beta we die like me
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-03
Updated: 2020-07-03
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:53:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,202
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25051981
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ivehadanapophany/pseuds/ivehadanapophany
Summary: Gerry becomes a full avatar of The Beholding to escape death and ends up meeting the new Archivist in a Wendy's a couple of years later.
Relationships: Basira Hussain & Alice "Daisy" Tonner, Georgie Barker/Melanie King, Gerard Keay/Jonathan Sims, Jonathan Sims & Alice "Daisy" Tonner, Jonathan Sims & Tim Stoker, Jonathan Sims/Martin Blackwood/Gerard Keay, Martin Blackwood & Tim Stoker, Martin Blackwood/Gerard Keay, Martin Blackwood/Jonathan Sims, Melanie King & Gerard Keay
Comments: 10
Kudos: 91





	Crossroads Converging

**Author's Note:**

> First time actually posting anything here please be gentle with me
> 
> based this on my comics on tumblr ( @littlerobinsart if anyones interested ) 
> 
> I was going to name this " The Gerry Lived Au: The Au Where Gerry Lived " but I decided on a slightly more serious title.
> 
> Thanks to my lovely betas! You can find Chris's stuff under AbbyMayHampson. Go read it!!
> 
> * edit. forgot to use rich text and i had to edit my lovely overuse of italics back in <3

Gerry cried out, desperately clinging to the fragile bits of warmth still curled in his chest. The cold and dark raged around him, snatching at his memories despite how hard he fought against it. He was slipping, slipping away. Should he just let go- No, he couldn’t. He was stuck. Why wasn’t he gone yet? And why did it  _ hurt  _ so much?? Death was supposed to be  _ nothing _ , not this stabbing  _ pain _ , lancing through his eyes and around his skull.

Gerry sobbed, knowing no one was around to hear his cries. It was just him, him and the seething, snatching  _ End.  _

No… there was something else there, too. Something staring down at him, watching as his soul struggled in the grey between The End and the waking world, drinking in all of his terror and anguish with a sick hunger. Gerry knew it, and he  _ hated  _ it. Hated it for making him choose, for making him stay. He also knew that he’d side with it, to stay alive, to feel the sunlight on his skin again. To be free someday. It was just a matter of time before he gave in. Gerry still dug in his heels. The Eye might have him in the end, but he sure as hell wasn’t going to make it easy. He would make it  _ pay _ . Gerry gritted his teeth and held on tighter. He wasn’t done yet.

\----------------------------

Gerry gasped, feeling all his nerves fire at once as he was yanked from the End’s clutches. He bolted upright, gripping the sides of his coffin. 

The air felt damp and stale, making the sides of his casket slightly tacky under his fingers. Eugh. Humidity.

Gerry was struck by how uncomfortable his clothes were, and glanced down at himself. 

_ Ew.  _

He was dressed in an ill fitting tuxedo, navy blue and incredibly starchy. The fabric was stiff, and firmly resisted his attempts to exit the coffin, he managed to escape, though. Gerry stood and patted his face tentatively, noticing the thick layer of makeup the mortician had applied. He felt for his piercings, and was dismayed to find that whatever asshat had been in charge of dressing up his corpse had removed them. He sighed, and resolved to find replacements as soon as possible; his ears felt naked without them. 

The building was dark and empty. No one was around to notice a once-dead body walk straight out of the funeral home and into the parking lot, for which Gerry was grateful. 

It was a cool night, and the star's gentle blinking caught Gerry's eye. 

As he looked up at the sky, he noticed something seemed..  _ Off _ , somehow. Stars didn’t usually  _ blink.  _ His breath caught in his chest as the sky shifted into focus. The sky… it was full of  _ eyes _ , all blinking as one by one they gradually focused their broken pupils to stare directly at him, pinning him in place with the sheer force of their gaze. He couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t  _ think.  _

Gerry took a step backwards. Then his heel slipped on a patch of loose gravel. He caught himself on his hands, scratching his palms rather badly. Gerry grimaced and put one of his hands to his mouth. He paused. Were the cuts… healing? He crouched in the road, watching in amazement as the wounds in his hands started closing faster than should have been possible. 

" Ah. Fuck." 

The sky was back to normal. Gerry scowled up at it, then got to his feet and dusted himself off. An empty road stretched out before him.

" Take two, I suppose.. " 

He turned and started walking down the road, uncomfortable shoes, too-small suit, Eldritch Eye Powers and all. 

_ I hope things turn out better this time.. _

\-----------------------------

Jon stared at his rapidly cooling burger and fries, wringing his hands nervously. His trip to the States had not been nearly as productive as he’d hoped. Another dead end, literally. He poked at his melting frosty, not much in the mood for eating. 

_ Gerard Keay…  _ Jon mused,  _ another lead, lost… I suppose there’s not much else to find here. They need me back home.  _

“ Hey.” 

Jon looked up, startled to see someone sliding into the booth across from him. He took in the tattoos, piercings, and leather, realization dawning when he noticed their shittily dyed hair. 

“ You’re… you’re Gerard Keay!” 

He gaped for a moment, before plunging headfirst into a series of jumbled questions.   
  
“ What- how are you here?? You’re dead! You’re  _ supposed  _ to be dead- how are you alive??? Where have you  _ been _ ??? I’ve been looking  _ everywh- _ ” 

“ Keep it down, Archivist, people are staring.” Gerry cut him off, gesturing at several unnerved customers glancing in their direction. Jon’s stream of questions trailed off, and he stared at the man sitting in front of him, confusion and relief warring on his face.

Gerard looked somehow less intimidating than Jon had expected. He was tall, sure, his long arms stretching across the back of the booth and his legs almost brushing against Jon’s under the table. It wasn’t a threatening kind of tall, though. He somehow reminded Jon of a scarecrow. Maybe it was the way all his clothing seemed a bit too loose for him. Or perhaps it was how worn out he looked; the bags under his eyes spoke of late nights and fitful sleep. Jon felt the sole of Gerard’s boot brush against his pants leg and flinched, scooting away as discreetly as he could.

“ Can I have your fries?” Gerry asked, leaning forward and lacing his fingers together, pointing with his chin at said fries. 

“ Ah- um… yes. They’re probably cold though." 

“ Eh, I’ve had worse.” He shrugged and reached across the table, taking the fries. He popped one in his mouth. Then another. And another. Jon fidgeted with a napkin, ripping it at the edges. 

“ So.. Gerard-” 

“ Gerry.” 

“ What?” 

He avoided Jon’s gaze, instead focusing on the near-empty container of cold fries in his hand. 

“ .. Call me Gerry,” he finally met Jon’s eyes, lips quirking into a half smile, “ my mum called me Gerard. Never liked it much.” 

Jon stared at him for half a second before replying, “ Oh- of course, Gerry.” That got a real smile out of him, not a big one, but it still reached his eyes. He had a nice smile. Jon paused for a minute after that, trying to gather his thoughts. 

“ I-I’ve been looking for you,” he started, “ The Unknowing, the ritual- do you know how to-” Jon was cut off by Gerry shaking his head, 

“ I don’t think a  _ Wendys  _ is the best place to have that conversation,” he smirked and motioned towards the other customers, “ besides, it’s been awhile since I’ve had one of these.” with that, Gerry reached over the now empty container of fries and snatched up Jon’s half melted frosty. He paused, “ unless you still want it?” 

“ What? Oh- no, go ahead.” Jon bit back a flare of irritation. He  _ needed _ to know how to stop the Unknowing. He took a deep breath and pushed down his complaints. Gerar- no,  _ Gerry _ had a point. A fast food restaurant was not the best place to discuss dismantling the ritual of an ancient fear god. They could talk about this later. Gerry was alive, and he would know how to stop it. He had to. 

Jon watched as Gerry scarfed down the frosty, wondering how many meals he'd been missing. It can't have been easy, getting jobs and such when you're legally dead,  _ and _ from the UK no less, though it wasn't unlikely he knew how to falsify his identity-

“ -eady to leave?”   
  
“ Hm?” Jon snapped out of his daze, realizing Gerry had been talking to him.   
  
“ I said are you ready to go, or are you planning on sitting here and waiting for The Stranger to catch up with you?”    
  
“ What??”    
  
“ The Stranger.” Gerry repeated, frowning, “ one of it’s little monsters has been following you for a while now.”

“ What?- I don’t-” Jon thought back to the past couple of weeks, trying to remember if he’d been followed by some kind of mannequin or-

“  _ the police officer _ .” Jon had noticed he was being followed, but didn't suspect there was anything supernatural about the man, though that did make a bit more sense, looking back on it.    
  
“ Yeeep. I’ve been chasing that one for awhile, until I found out what it’d been tracking.” He looked pointedly at Jon. Jon sputtered,

“ Well it’s not  _ my  _ fault he’s tracking me!” 

Gerry rolled his eyes, “ I mean  _ obviously.  _ Nobody asks to be tailed by creepy skin puppets. Nobody sane, at least. Let’s just get out of here, cover some ground.” He stood, making their height difference even more apparent, and started walking towards the door. Jon scrambled to his feet, following after him as quickly as he could. The parking lot was mostly full, but Gerry made a beeline for Jon's rental. 

_ Odd.  _

How did he know which car was Jon’s?    
  
_ He probably followed me here, or something _ . Jon reasoned. That, or he had terrifying eldritch powers. Neither was really a good option. Jon giving him a lift back to England was probably a very stupid idea. Definitely a stupid idea, one that might even put the others in danger. Jon thought all of this as he unlocked the car, and let Gerry slide into the passenger seat.    
  
Well. Jon couldn’t exactly kick him out of the car  _ now.  _

Gerry kicked back in the seat, resting his long legs on the dashboard. Jon glared.    
  
“ Can you  _ please  _ remove your feet, it’s making it hard to see.”    
  
“ Oh come on, I’m not  _ that  _ big.”    
  


“ Yes, well I’m not used to driving in the united states, and I’m not the  _ tallest  _ man-” 

“ Alright, alright.” Gerry said, smiling as he put his hands up in mock surrender and took his feet off the dash.

“.. Thank you.” 

They drove in silence for a while, Jon trying to keep his eyes on the road while Gerry fidgeted with the zippers on his jacket. One of the zippers kept getting stuck, and Gerry would tug on it with an increasingly annoyed expression until it gave. He really  _ wanted  _ to drill Gerry for information about the Unknowing, but wasn’t quite sure how to break the silence, besides, forcibly dragging knowledge out of someone didn’t seem like a great foot to start off on. 

Gerry eventually stopped messing with his zippers and closed his eyes, his head tilted slightly towards the window. He looked.. tired. Oh, well. Jon couldn’t wait any longer.   
  
“ So, Gerard-”   
  


“  _ Gerry. _ ”    
  
“ Right, sorry, Gerry,” Jon took a steadying breath “ Well, now that we’re  _ not  _ in a Wendys, how do I stop the Unknowing?” 

“ Oh, I don’t know.” 

“  _ WHAT?!”  _

“ Woah, calm down, you’re still  _ driving  _ you know.” 

Jon swallowed a blistering retort and glared at the road, clenching the steering wheel and breathing hard through flared nostrils. 

“ What do you  _ mean  _ you  _ don’t know??”  _ Jon asked, gritting his teeth.    
  
“ I  _ mean  _ I don’t know  _ exactly _ what Gertrude had planned for this particular ritual. She didn’t tell me everything before… well, before I died. It’s not exactly easy to get in contact with people after you’re legally dead. I couldn’t get my stuff back from the coroners either,”

Gerry smiled ruefully, “ I’m not the most  _ inconspicuous  _ guy in the world.” 

Jon took his eyes off the road to glance at Gerry, looking him up and down. He wasn’t wrong. Gerry had very striking features, even underneath all the tattoos and piercings. 

“ Besides,” Gerry continued, “ I had other things to worry about. Like  _ surviving. _ ”    
  
“ I suppose that’s reasonable,” Jon grumbled “ are you  _ sure  _ Gertrude didn’t say anything about the Unknowing?” 

Gerry thought for a moment, chewing on his lip absentmindedly. He had nice lips. Jon wished he’d use chapstick though, they were so  _ chapped _ , it was getting on his nerves. 

“ So me and Gertrude went all over, following mannequins and clowns. She did a  _ lot  _ of research and figured it could be delayed, but nothing we could do beforehand would stop it properly,” Gerry leaned forward, “  _ but  _ it might be vulnerable when it started.”

“ Vulnerable to what?” 

“ I dunno.” 

“ Oh  _ come on- _ ”

“ Hold on, let me finish.”    
  


Jon’s scowl deepened, but he didn’t say anything.

“ Gertrude  _ did _ say she might have something that could stop it,” Gerry continued, “ She hid it in a storage unit on an industrial estate near Hainault, rented under the name Jan Kelly. Said she hid a key for it somewhere in the institute.”

“ Wait, I think I found that!”

“ Huh. Well, I guess we know what we’re doing when we get back” 

Jon glanced in his direction “ So you’re still coming back?”    
  
“ Yeah, I mean, there’s really nowhere else for me to go.” 

Well. He supposed that  _ was  _ true. It would be a bit cruel to just dump Gerry on the streets after drilling him for information. The sudden image of Gerry sleeping on his couch popped into his head and he shuddered. Definitely not, Jon was busy enough without the additional problem of housing stray goths he picked up in America. That reminded him-   
  
“ Do you have enough money for a ticket?”    
  
Gerry shifted in his seat, grimacing.    
  
“ Um.”    
  
Jon sighed. 

**Author's Note:**

> " where's the next chapter??" you ask
> 
> at the time of posting this ( july 3 11:13 am ) I actually haven't started ahaha.... I will though! 
> 
> I need to relisten to season three so I can remember what order everything happened in holy shit.
> 
> Thank you for reading!


End file.
